Tuesday, July 01, 2008

The New Man In My Life ...

His name is Charlie. He has the softest sandy blonde hair and the sweetest lips you've ever seen.

It was his birthday.

His one-month birthday.

My friends Chris and Ginger welcomed Charlie at the end of May and Sunday was his "coming-out" party at Ginger's folks' house. He was asleep when I arrived. Sleeping. It's what babies do. Besides eating. He woke up long enough to eat and to make everyone swoon over his cuteness.

I tried to play it cool, to not immediately scoop him up and sniff his perfect little head, even though I was dying to get my hands on him.

Luckily, dinnertime rolled around and I suggested to Ginger that she go ahead and eat. I gathered Charlie against my chest, his perfect, soft cheek against the cloth over my shoulder.

Within moments, he fell asleep. Lots of babies fall asleep on my shoulder. They're usually boy babies. Which sets me up to deliver the line, "Yeah, I have that effect on men."

From time to time, Charlie would start to stir and fuss for a tiny moment. I would sway back and forth and "Shush" his little head and he'd settle down again.

I think rubbing his little back helped, too. So much so that he slept on my shoulder for three hours.

Though he wasn't always on my shoulder. He'd smoosh down into strange little contortions and I'd pick him up and realign him on my shoulder, only to have him smoosh down again.

I kept thinking that he'd wake up with a kink in his little neck, but he seemed content in his smooshedness.

Eventually, Chris woke him up so that Ginger could feed him. Charlie wasn't happy to be roused. And I was sorry to let him go.

Earlier, as everyone ate dinner, several people said, "You're a natural."